Pacquiao vs. Margarito, head-to-head

KNOCKOUTS

Pacquiao - 38

Margarito - 25

Advantage: Pacquiao

PUNCH POWER

Advantage: Even, leaning towards Margarito

SPEED

Advantage: Pacquiao, by a mile

QUALITY OPPONENTS FACED

Pacquiao: de la Hoya, Cotto, Morales, Barrera, Marquez

Margarito: Williams, Mosley, Martinez

Advantage: Pacquiao

WINS OVER COMMON OPPONENTS

(Clottey; Cotto)

Pacquiao: UD; TKO round 12

Margarito: UD; TKO round 11

Advantage: Even

ENDORSERS

Pacquiao: Nike, "aybupropen parasetamol Alaxan ep-ar," McDonald's, Xtreme Magic Sing, PLDT, San Miguel Beer, etc.

Margarito: LOL NONE

Advantage: Pacquiao

NICKNAME ORIGINALITY-COOLNESS SCORE

Pacquiao: "Pacman"

Margarito: "The Tijuana Tornado"

Advantage: None

SINGING ABILITIES

Advantage: None

HAILED AS...

Pacquiao: Arguably the greatest boxer in the history of the sport

Margarito: "hand-wraps controversy guy"

Advantage: Pacquiao

BEARD LENGTH

Advantage: Margarito, by a mile

WIFE

Pacquiao: Jinkee

Margarito: Michelle

Advantage: David Beckham

CATCH PHRASE

Pacquiao: "You know?"

Margarito: "I didn't know!"

Advantage: Margarito

Add the tally up and input the results in my program, which translates the results to...

1st-2nd round:

Feeling out process. Pacquiao gets the better of Margo through his speed and adaptability, and Margarito can't land any significant hits.

3rd-5th round:

Margarito finds the pace and range and begins to lure Pacquiao into his powerful body shots. Pacquiao stupidly tests Margy's strengths like he did with Cotto and Clottey, which results in him cringing for a few seconds to those body shots. Pacmehn starts to lose his game plan and decides to bang with him.

5th-9th round:

Coach Roach tells Pacman to stick to the plan, and MP agrees. Pacman gets back his flow and picks his shots, moving with silky smooth fluidity you'd think he'd Vaselined his entire body.

10th-12th round:

Pacman tries to pretend he's not tired. Starts to regret his sucky training camp and wished he put more time in. Margarito, sensing weakness, goes for the kill, but P-dude ain't giving up just yet. Margarito swings at Pacquiao, who is now just  running at pure heart alone. Exciting final seconds closes the championship rounds.

Judges declare it... A DRAW, LEADING TO AN UNPRECEDENTED 30 SECOND SUDDEN DEATH MATCH

13th round:

PMeister charges for his special move: The Manila Ice mark III. Margo charges with his Tijuana Tornado X2000. In one final blow, the spirit of all the Philippines and the tenacity of Mexican blood clash in the center of the ring, from which the entire Cowboys Stadium explodes. And when the dust clears, only one man is seen standing...

Manny Pacquiao by Doctor Stoppage RD13

Fable III is my Game of the Month

And every Game of the Month of mine shalt be reviewed.


Fable III is the third installment of, well, the Fable series. It's a role-playing and action game released for the XBox 360 and later, the PC. The story is set 50 years after the events of Fable II, and you are the son (or daughter, depending on which gender you choose) of the last Hero of Albion. Unfortunately for you, your tyrant of a big brother became King after your father died, and he isn't exactly a nice guy. So as the Hero (the game's "Chosen One"), your job is to dethrone him. Doesn't come that easy, though, because you need to gain allies and win the people over before a revolution can start. And so, your story begins.


Gameplay: 8.5/10


Just like a typical role-playing game is, you do quests, fight peons and bosses, and explore the world. It wouldn't be fun if everyone just said "Yes!" to a revolution now, would it? What sets this game apart is that the decisions you make in the game affects the very world of Albion. Being King isn't enough, and on your way to the throne, you would have made promises to the people who fought for you. Will you keep your promises, sacrificing a deal of finances that are supposed to be used for the greater good of the entire kingdom, or will you detach from them, holding and possibly gaining even more wealth for the protection and safety and security of your kingdom?


Most of the time, I did not feel as much weight in my decisions as I thought I would. More decisions over life or death would've been better, like in the first part of the story where your bro the King would force you to choose between the life of your heart's desire or the lives of the prisoners whose pleas just wanted to be heard by King Bro. Instead, most of the time, you will be treated to choices such as building brothel to gain an amount of gold, or building an educational center, which will lose gold. While this seems alright, the gold can easily be re-attained by renting your land, managing your shops, or doing certain quests. It would've been better if decisions made could not be reciprocated or made up for, and had real consequences not just to the world, but to yourself, and not just in terms of your morality level. It also would've been better if some decisions in the game were not as clear as black and white (ie. brothel vs. educational center).


The second Fable was menu-heavy, and couple that with noticeable lag, it was an irritating aspect of the game. Fable III, however, was almost menu-free, and that's such a big improvement. Instead of piles and piles of menus and sub-menus, you are led to an interactive interface. Traveling, purchasing, and upgrading are no longer a drag. You still "pause" to change equipment, clothing or to view the map (also vastly improved and more user-friendly), but although real time in the game is stopped, you don't pause the game per se. Instead, you are transported to a place called "The Sanctuary," where you are treated to an interactive (there's that word again, see what I mean?) gallery of your items, from which you are to choose freely from. After you're done with whatever, you would resume from your last position, be it in a fight with Balverines in the forest or in a shop in the Market section of Bowerstone.


The weapon system allows you to change the appearance of the weapon of your choice through your actions. This was really good for your default weapons, where your decisions affected its look (bloody for bad, glowing for good, etc.) but for the other store-bought or "legendary" weapons, you are just made to go on certain quests (ie. Kill 500 of (insert type of enemy here) to get + x% damage) There was nothing wrong here and it's certainly an improvement from the last installation, but the developers of the game have hyped up its new weapon system so much that my expectations rose for it. Sadly, it didn't live up to its hype. Also, I rarely had to switch weapons in the game, and didn't buy any at all for the entire playthrough. It didn't feel like a necessity, because the game's overall difficulty isn't exactly catered to the hardcore gamers. While the difficulty level of the game was purposefully done easy for better accessibility, switching weapons has been rendered almost useless in the game.

The battle system is nothing innovating, but also an improvement. It's still melee (sword/axe), ranged (rifle/pistol), and magic (four elements +blade), but slow-mo God of War-esque scenes for Flourishes (extra-strong attacks) are a welcome addition, and makes fighting fun. There's not much strategy going into a fight, but it's still fun.


To monitor your progress, you are also presented with the Road to Rule, which tracks how far you have gone in the game. In the R2R are also weapon/magic and expression upgrades which you can purchase with Guild Seals (the "experience points" of the game) which you earn through fighting, questing, or making new Albionian friends. This might be unnecessary to some, but it's still a good addition to the game.


There will be noticeable glitches in the game when it comes to the physical aspect of things. One example is your trusty dog companion who helps you search for treasure, from chests or from under ground, which you will have to dig for a moment. There are times your dog will have a hard time navigating his way to treasure, especially in small passageways to go through or obstacles in the way. Sometimes, he even points to treasure that isn't even there! It's noticeable and oftentimes irritating, because it takes long, wasteful seconds for doggy to realize that there's a rock in front of him and he can't go through it.


Glitches aside, the gameplay is a vast improvement from Fable II, and although there are minor fixes needed to be done, and upgrades I'd like to see in the future (such as a battle system that employs strategy, maybe, and not just a shallow strength vs. weakness kind) this is still one of the best role-playing games I've played in the XBox 360 and a gratifying game to experience.


Graphics: 8/10


Graphics are also a major improvement from Fable II, although it's still just above-average for such a high-budget game. Characters now appear more textured, but what really caught my eye is the design of each of the places you travel to. The atmosphere is stunning and the places feel unique wherever you go. Sunsets are very, very dazzling, especially in one of the places inside a Demon Door. You'll know what I mean when you see it. And every place looks just as well as night as it does in daytime.There are also CGI cutscenes now, but they are rare. I wish there were more of those.


Oh, and now, everyone has well proportioned bodies. No more extremely buff bodies and small heads.


Sound: 9.5/10


Background music and special effects were appropriate and complement each place you travel to. The voice acting was very well done and felt natural, as if I was really immersed in the conversations. Oh, and the main character now can talk, and not just pull caveman grunts and other sounds in his conversations unlike in previous games. It didn't feel like the main character was of much importance to the plot though, because if he can talk, at least make him talk as much as the others do.


Replayability: 6/10


Well, there's not much you can do on a second playthrough, except maybe play as a different gender or be on the other side of the morality level. Playing as a different gender won't change the dialogue conversations, though, or change the story for that matter. It doesn't really matter, because one playthrough already packs a lot of hours thanks to exploration and questing. If you do a second, then it's probably just to see the outcome of the other decisions.


Overall: 8.5/10


The games many glitches have brought the game's score down when it could have been higher, but this game is still more than worth the money. It's not about the repetitive fetch quests or the typical fairy tale story, it's the vast world of Albion and what you can do with it, and the consequences it faces with your actions. It's about the role-playing, the immersing, whose essence the game perfectly captures.

Semestral Break is OOOOVEERR

Well. That went by slower than I thought, fortunately. Nothing much happened the last three weeks. But here's a rundown anyway.

- Put up the Christmas tree (it's already 18 years old and still standing, albeit barely).
- Visited EB during her school hours and after.
- Danced the worst Thriller ever for this Halloween event (presentation was for charity, so no, I'm not intending to go pro).
- Took a "vacation" to Misibis Bay, Bicol.
- Sparred with my brother.

And that's pretty much it. I wish it were more uneventful. I just wanted to lie back and do some occasional Muay Thai and EB visitation.

 Some good MMA news landed. World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) will now merge with the UFC, this means that the featherweight and bantamweight divisions will get as much spotlight as the others. Good thing, because there are lots of fighters worthy of our undivided attention. The coming months will be defining for them, yes.

Pacquiao seems to not be taking his training seriously, reports mentioned. He's been doing all these unnecessary events that stray him away from boxing. Meanwhile, contrasting reports of Margarito's training camp have emerged, saying Margarito is in top shape. You better be ready Pacman. Please please please.

Oh no I've been enrolled in Tae Kwon Do for PE. Stupid online enlistment process. Sigh. I wanted something like Judo. Or if not, Track & Field or Weight Lifting. I need to increase my conditioning and strength, or perhaps my cardio. But no. I'm getting the one PE class I wanted so badly to avoid. Ah never mind. Will just make the most of it.

Need to crap. And I'm in school. Shoot.